The airline industry has, for over half a century, transported large volumes of travelers on a daily basis to destinations around the world. One of the primary concerns of the airline industry during this time period has been to maintain the safety of its passengers and aircraft. Over time, the general public, and most airline passengers, developed a positive feeling for airline safety. Statistically speaking, air travel has been considered safer than other presumably safe activities; for example, routinely there have been more people involved in auto or gun related accidents or fires than people involved in aircraft related accidents. The occasional hijacking was not considered a major threat, as most ended without passenger casualties or damage to aircraft.
The attitude toward air travel forever changed on the morning of Sep. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center in New York, N.Y. and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. became the objects of a terrorist attack of previously unimaginable proportions. On that day, hijackers took over control of four separate aircraft and then managed to personally fly three of those as weapons of mass murder into the buildings, destroying the buildings, surrounding buildings and all three aircraft. The fourth plane crashed into an open field just outside of Pittsburgh following a valiant struggle by passengers to recapture the plane. Tragically, all passengers on all four planes and several thousand people on the ground died that day.
Following the aftermath of “911”, there is now a greater emphasis than ever before on improving airline security to try to prevent hijacking of aircraft. Much of the efforts have been directed to reducing the chances that a successful hijacking may occur, such as by instituting more stringent searches at check-in, by placing armed marshal on flights and by better securing the door separating the passenger and cockpit areas of the plane. These efforts, however, have done little to address the source of the problem, which is hijackers taking over control of an aircraft.
In view of which, there is seen a need to improve the manner by which the occurrences of hijacking on aircraft can be reduced.